The first spot I chose for the bulbs--most of them are tiny: chionodoxa, camassia, muscari--has a very thin layer of former sod over fill dirt, which around here is always decomposing shale. It's nasty stuff that grows nothing. I might have gotten down three inches before I had to give up from sheer exhaustion. A shovel won't do the job, and even the spading fork--a shorter version of a pitchfork with thicker tines--was having trouble. So was I. I called it a day.
At this rate, it'll take me three tries just to get one hole dug. It'll be a couple of feet around, and these bulbs do not need much space for their roots, but what a chore. When I order the bulbs I always forget what hard labor it is to plant them.